Should Men Worry About Dry Orgasms?

For men, it sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it? Men ejaculate semen at orgasm. Doesn’t that make orgasms, by definition, wet?

The answer is: Not all the time. Some men reach orgasm – and feel great pleasure from it – but do not ejaculate any semen at all. Or, they might ejaculate a very small amount. This is what we mean by “dry orgasm.”

What causes dry orgasms?

Men may have dry orgasms for a variety of reasons.

Younger men with short refractory periods might have them occasionally. The refractory period is a period of time after orgasm during which a man’s body recovers and doesn’t respond to sexual stimulation. These intervals often don’t last long in younger men. In fact, it can be just minutes before a man is “ready to go” again. And he might climax several times during one sexual encounter.

Eventually, however, the well runs dry. A man has a limited amount of semen to ejaculate and if he keeps going, that supply will be depleted. It’s not a cause for worry, though. In a day or two, the man’s body will produce semen to replace what has been ejaculated and he’ll be back to a full supply.

Certain medical conditions can lead to dry orgasms, too, especially in older men. Men who have had surgery for prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia) often experience dry orgasm. So do men who have had their bladder removed.

Other possible causes include medications (such as those for high blood pressure or an enlarged prostate), radiation therapy, nerve damage, low testosterone, and spinal cord injury.

In some cases, men develop retrograde ejaculation. When this happens, semen isn’t expelled from the tip of the penis. Instead, it goes backward into the bladder. It is not harmful, however. The semen exits the body when the man urinates.